Neighbor recounts fatal stabbing in San Bernardino neighborhood

SAN BERNARDINO >> The teen boy who knocked on Victor Marquez’s door Thursday evening was covered in blood and pleading for him to call 9-1-1.

When Marquez approached the boy’s father two doors down on Davidson Avenue, the man had a message for his neighbors:

“All of you guys are witnesses. It ends today,” Jorge Alberto Palomo told Marquez. “Tell the cops to kill me.”

Police say Palomo, 46, stabbed his sister-in-law to death and wounded his wife and one of his children in a knife and ax attack.

Palomo may have also tried to set his house on fire or blow it up, police said, because he had two 5-gallon propane tanks inside and had broken the stove gas line, causing gas to fill up inside the residence.

San Bernardino police came to the 2300 block of North Davidson Avenue at 6:05 p.m. on a report of a stabbing. They found Palomo’s sister-in-law, Ana Maria Ramirez, 61, one of his sons and his wife, 49-year-old Sonia Palomo, all suffering from stab wounds.

Police say Palomo attacked Ramirez with an ax, and then cut his wife and teen son with the ax and knife while they struggled to get the weapons away from him.

Police Sgt. Gary Robertson said it appears Palomo attacked his family because he wanted his sister-in-law to move out.

“She’d been living with them over 20 years,” Robertson said.

Ramirez died at a hospital. Sonia Palomo survived the attack and was also hospitalized. The wounded child was been treated and released from a hospital, police said.

Residents said the street is one where neighbors talk to each other, but Palomo’s family kept to themselves. Neighbors estimate the family lived on the street about 10 years.

When the dispute erupted in the home, Susana Camarena, 38, said Palomo’s 7-year-old son ran outside naked, jumped a fence and approached her.

She took him to another neighbor’s home to protect him from harm, she said.

Palomo then began breaking windows in the home.

Palomo’s 14-year-old son ran to Marquez’s home for help. He had cuts on his body. Sonia Palomo emerged from the house, screaming and bleeding from her chest.

She ran back inside and dragged her sister, Ana Maria Ramirez, out of the house.

“She was already dead,” Marquez said. “She was trying to do CPR on her, but nothing.”

At some point, Jorge Palomo came out of the house with what Marquez described as an 18-inch hunting knife.

“I went over there and he was on the front lawn with a knife. I said, ‘What the Hell are you doing?’” Marquez said.

When police arrived, Palomo held up his hands and surrendered.

Palomo was initially taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, but was expected to be booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Booking logs indicated he was tentatively scheduled to appear in San Bernardino Superior Court on Tuesday.

A man, who identified himself as a family friend, cleared broken glass from the home on Friday. He said he wasn’t sure what led to the attack but he suspects it’s because the family was struggling financially.

“It’s a tragic situation,” the man said. “A by-product of our economy. He was a proud man trying to take care of his family.”

The killing is the 29th homicide in the city this year. There were 28 by the same date in 2012.